StudentsXpress Summer 2023

SUMMER 2023

THANK YOU

to the school districts that participated in this issue of StudentsXpress!

Chicago Public Schools, Illinois East Orange School District, New Jersey Moffat County School District, Colorado Meridian Public School District, Mississippi Sugar Land School District, Texas

www.studentsxpress.com Publisher Rachel Switall Magazine Group, NFP Rachel Switall Editor, Art Director, Production Manager rachel@studentsxpress.com Pam McNall Founder, Respectful Ways Social Emotional Learning Program

Cover art by Queena L.

Students— When submitting work, please be sure to write neatly.

Spell check does not check names and if they are hard to read, I just do the best I can, so I apologize if I got any names wrong!

Teachers, it always helps if names are written out clearly.

Also, if you’re turning in artwork, unlined white paper is the best.

And please write your name on every page submitted.

Dear Readers, I am thrilled to welcome some new schools into the StudentsXpress mix. StudentsXpress started out as my thesis project in graduate school. Then, it was called “Peaceful Times” and was focused on a couple schools in Chicago. After a few different iterations, I landed on StudentsXpress in 2011, focusing on Chicago Public Schools. With the Respectful Ways partnership, we now reach beyond Chicago and have schools submitting from all over. This issue includes work from students in New Jersey, Texas, Colorado and Mississippi. It’s exciting! And,

Hello StudentsXpress!

This edition is in honor of our module called “Love Yourself First and Foremost.”

Self-love is having regard and care for one’s own well-being and happiness. Holding yourself up in love and light is something we need to remind ourselves to do—every day. It’s about supporting yourself with tools you can use. Tools that retrain your brain when negative thoughts creep in.

I don’t know about you, but my brain can play some serious tricks on me. I find self-love to ebb and flow, come

it’s probably a good time to go over some of the basics of submitting one’s work for future issues.

It is very important to spell your name clearly. I have trouble reading some names, and if I can’t read them, I can’t include them—or I may just make my best guess or include initials. Please help me out by printing your name clearly.

Artwork is best on unlined paper. And please remember to include your name. A scanned file is usually better than a photograph. If you would like to mail me your original art for me to scan, please just let me know and we can arrange that.

I hope you enjoy this issue!

and go. One of my favorite “go-to-tools” for self-love in our Respectful Ways curriculum is: STOP THOUGHT, GO POSITIVE. Anytime I’m negative and self-loathing, I stop my thoughts by visualizing a red X and I GO positive and I visualize a green field of wildflowers. I hear the breeze, see the relaxing field, and I calm my thoughts down. It works for me. I hope our Stop Thought/Go Positive visualization works for you!

Let’s make a pact with each other and find what works—for each of us. Art, music, walking, singing, sharing or visualizing. Do what works for you—so you can feel self-love inside your body and soul!

—Rachel rachel@studentsxpress.com

Respectfully, Pam McNall Founder, Respectful Ways

Can you find these pictures throughout the magazine?

Thank you!

Contact rachel@studentsxpress.com if your school would like to participate in StudentsXpress.

Sponsored by Constant Contact

3

Something that you can do today for self love is think positively about yourself and be kind to yourself. If you hear someone talking bad about you, you simply stay positive because you keep thinking only good things about you. You can’t let others bother you if you protect yourself by being kind to yourself first.

In closing, self love is respecting yourself.

—Liam M.

Things I can do today to feel better about myself is to think about good things about me. For example, I can think that I am a kind person. By doing this, I can feel better, and love myself. Another way is to try not to be perfect, but try your best. If you try to be perfect, you’ll feel bad because you couldn’t be perfect.

However, trying your best is better because even if you didn’t get every specific detail right, it’s more important that you did better than last time.

—Itoha K.

Loving yourself provides you with self-confidence, self-worth, and in general, you feel more positive.

If you can learn to love yourself, you will feel happier and will learn to take better care of yourself. Self-love is important because it motivates much of people’s positive behavior while reducing harmful behavior.

It both empowers people to take risks and to say no to things that don’t work for them. It’s a key component of building self-compassion. Self-love helps us take care of ourselves, lower stress, and strive for success.

—Ella C.

I show myself Love by eating healthy foods like bananas.

—Roper

The process of mars to yourself will have ups and downs on this journey you will probably have days where you feel Cool. Full of energy and positive, but there will be days when I’m not, and that’s more than okay.

Self love is not a quick process.

Part of the people you love the most, self-love is important because it opens even more doors for you to sleep and receive love.

Like self-love, healing not only takes time but is also very complex.

—Zoe O.

4

What I could do today to feel better about myself is by doing something that I enjoy doing. This could help me by making me feel happy about myself, and if I do something that I enjoy doing, it will make me forget about everything I’m worried about. I could also think positively about myself instead of thinking negatively about myself, this could help me to love myself for who I am. When I feel better about myself, I feel happier with me and with others.

—Coral T.G.

When I want to feel better about myself, I think about what’s good about myself instead of the bad like what I’m good at. Also, you can talk to someone about it that’s close to you or a parent or maybe a stuffed animal that’s your favorite. You can always tell a teacher or an adult about how you are feeling too.

—Sloane I.

You can show kindness to others like your family or your friends. Next you can give them a present like shoes, chocolate candy or love. Another way to show love to others is by helping them every day.

A different way to show love to others is to get a pet like a cat or dog. Last you can show love to others is by being nice, helpful respectful and to be kind.

—David S.

Self love is something wonderful that we all have in our hearts. Something you can do to have self-love is to be confident, wear things you love. And if someone triggers strong emotions in you, self-love can calm them down by knowing if you’re doing the right thing. By loving you can love other people because if you don’t have love you can show it to other people. Giving yourself love can help you to be loved by other people. Self love is when you know what you are if you don’t have confidence in yourself you can’t be you.

—Ariana L.

Summer 2023

To love each other one must love themselves. Self love is always necessary for joy. You can’t truly be happy if you don’t love yourself. Everyone is special and unique and you should walk away from the idea that you’re inferior to anyone else. Nobody else is you.

And you can do anything if you like you as a person.

—Mateo F.

I feel self love with my stuffed bear.

—Si Yu

What you can do to make yourself feel better is try taking deep breaths and to try calming yourself down for like 5-10 minutes. What you can also do to calm yourself down is do yoga for 15-20 to let your body relax and it will make yourself calm down.

What you can do to make yourself feel better is by stop thinking about what’s going to happen instead you think that something good is gonna happen later today or in the future.

—Ashley G-L

One thing you can do to feel better about yourself is read inspirational quotes. That could help because you get inspired to do things.

Another thing you can do to feel better about yourself is learn to ignore what others say unless it’s positive. If you listen to mean things people say then you will start to think so too and that’s bad.

Lastly, you can feel better about yourself if you do things that make you happy, If you are doing something you don’t like then you will never feel good about yourself. :) —Laura N.

—Lily

I show love to my sister by telling her that she doesn’t need that much makeup on and that she is already beautiful the way she is already. I tell her this because she always wears makeup almost every day and wastes her time. She already knows that she is beautiful but she doesn’t listen and adds more makeup.

— Ximena L.

What I could do to feel better about myself is to believe in myself and that I could do it and don’t think that you can’t do it for you could do it. I just gotta believe in myself and try my best and just be positive.

—Allison C.

Summer 2023

I am picking a strawberry.

Eating healthy. —Rian

Self love Self love, you wonder what it is. I love myself but sometimes you ask yourself what is loving yourself?

Think about it, what are some things you can do to feel better about yourself? There is really nothing you can do but be you. You’re one person and you can only be you so why not try it. People always try to do things to get others’ attention or approval when all you can do is but so much. Ask yourself when was the last time I felt not good and if so how did I show myself love to feel better? Just ask yourself when did you lose the self in yourself? Think about it, you do things to make yourself happy, treat yourself, love yourself that all you do to get by. I used to ask if I love myself will it help me love others or if I love myself will it help others love? Don’t question yourself is what I learned about self love. Just do it. You don’t always have to listen to the voice of love yourself. I’m telling you if you do you would feel so much better. See there is one thing I do all the time to make myself feel loved.

I write things down and look in the mirror and read them to myself as I was my best friend. Not all people know how to love themselves but you will learn it is hard to explain but loving myself is now easy and I am proud of myself. And one day I hope it will be easy and you will be proud too. —Ziyah W.

5

I show myself love… by doing yoga.

—Matteo

playing games by myself.

Oliver

by breathing.

I give myself a big hug.

—Sebastian L.

—Samantha M.

by listening to music.

—Anonymous

by making friends.

—Zoe

6

I am making kind choices.

—Mateo

by dancing.

—Santino

Summer 2023

Self love is a good thing because without loving yourself you would not like what you do or that you always think you are wrong. It is important to believe in yourself so you can accomplish great things in your life. Like having a job that helps people like donating to hospitals or schools or many more things.

—Benjamin W.

I impact others by being kind, sweet, helpful, and being silly and funny. Other people impact me too by being kind but mostly being silly and funny.

I am silly to have fun and make people laugh.

My character trait is silly, kind, and sweet but a little bit annoying.

—Jaynie H.

Me helping others giving them food clothes and money. I give that girl that so she can be happy.

And when she grows up shes gonna give me something to me too for me helping her.

—Mariel M.

Self love is a good thing because it makes you feel good about yourself. Without self love you will feel pretty sad and lonely. You can’t feel happy without having self love. Getting friends also starts with self love because if you are always sad and grumpy no one will want to be your friend. But be careful if you love yourself too much none will love you. What I mean by that is you can’t be so oohhh I’m so much better than you at this or ohhh I’m so cool if you’re like that no one will want to be your friend.

—Lucas K.

What you can do to feel better about yourself is be confident. Say something positive about yourself.

Be nice to yourself and love yourself by saying like I like my hair and I like how I look today and don’t say bad things about you.

—Isabella M.

When I am mad I play my iPad. —Anonymous

Self love is when you do something for yourself or don’t only love other people, but also yourself. You can show self love in lots of ways but everyone is different and show self love in different ways. Some people hang out with the people they love, some people exercise or eat healthy, some tell themself positive things called affirmations. But like I said earlier, everyone shows self love differently. I show my body self love by avoiding people that are negative toward me and not depending on others to do something for me. Self love is a great thing to learn how to do and I recommend you try it if you haven’t already.

—Lacey S.

Summer 2023

How loving yourself helps you to love others is by you putting effort into loving and caring for yourself because if you want to love others you need to love yourself first and care for yourself. Another reason loving yourself helps you to love others is by talking to someone you can trust. For example, another reason loving yourself helps you to love others is by putting yourself first and treating yourself with kindness before you spread your kindness and love to people. Another example of how loving yourself helps you to love others is by taking care of your health and being respectful to yourself.

—Kevin B.

I play trampoline.

—Gabe

7

Loving yourself can help you love others because if you love yourself you will know how to love others.

Loving yourself is a feeling where you like how you are and you love everything about you. You could tell others that you like how they are or you like their personality and also everything about them. People will love you and you could love them back. For example, everybody loves family and they love you back. :) —Kaylee R.

For starters, believe in yourself and you will be able to do anything. Also, don’t care what others think of you, and if somebody is talking trash about you ignore them and walk away. If somebody is making you do something that you DON’T like tell them NO. —Andrew M. Carolina

Be your own best friend. A best friend helps each other if you need help asking. Tell your body if you’re hurt not to keep going. If you need more sleep help yourself. Yourself is your first priority. Helping yourself before others.

—Avery T.

This is a portrait of me caring for someone when they’re having a bad day.

—Aaliyah Esta soy yo dandole cariño a mi familia.

Yo tanvi edan amor ami mama idan do leun avaso —Anonymous

The things that make me upset about myself are when I do something wrong or when I can’t understand something. But how I avoid those things is I try focusing more and try learning and I try making things right and to be more careful. Other things that can make me feel better about myself is when I get something a good grade and I feel really proud of myself for trying and never giving up. My last thing what can make me feel better about myself is I can think positive and to never give up.

—Jennifer G.

Self love is good because you won’t hate yourself. You can also be your best friend. Self love is important so you won’t be mad at yourself or want to hit yourself.

It’s not good not to have self love. That is why I think self love is important.

—Vincent C.

8

Aiden was getting bullied by someone and Emma saw so Emma told a teacher and then the teacher called Aiden and the person that bullied him and then Aiden said thank you to the girl.

—David M.

She was crying but she made her feel better

Summer 2023

Maritza G.

A way to love yourself is you can treat yourself nicely by eating healthy foods like vegetables and meat and salad. You should treat yourself like you would treat your family. Another reason is that you should brush your teeth so you don’t get a cavity or pain in your teeth. Also don’t hurt yourself because that will only result in a bad thing.

—Adam A-A

For your health make right choices by eating healthy.

—Raunak P.

To be honest, I really don’t feel like doing this right now.

When I don’t feel good I always tell myself to get over it because life is short and you can’t spend all your time feeling bad about something. Sometimes I feel bad because I don’t win at my tournaments and to make myself feel better I focus on something else that I enjoy like watching TV. Some people have a comfort toy others read or hangout with friends they focus on something else that they enjoy so then they don’t think about the bad thing.

Sometimes when I feel bad and I forget about it I watch something scary like a horror movie so I get scared and completely ignore the bad thing and focus on the scary thing. Of course now you cannot forget about the scary thing but at least you forgot about the unpleasant feeling.

—Tatyana K.

Summer 2023

I really don’t know what I am doing.

—Valentina

I think it’s important to love yourself because if you can love yourself you can love others. If you know how to treat yourself with kindness, respect and think positive things about yourself then you will know how to treat others. Another reason it’s important to love yourself is because if you treat yourself well you will be able to be happy and enjoy yourself.

—Hailey E.

Andres M. Don’t be afraid to be yourself just because of who you are in front of. I was worried that I would do something stupid for a long time then I realized that I don’t need to change myself just because I’m in front of a certain person. Now I don’t care what I do in front of others I don’t hide anything anymore.

—Keira K.

1) What can you do to feel better about yourself?

You can always think, “What have I recently looked down on?” This means, “what can I do to make myself better?” You can change the past, but you will always know that you’re perfect just the way you are.

2) How does it feel when you let your love light shine out into the world? Well, to me it makes me feel proud that I’ve faced my fears and was able to let love and generosity into the world and let love take you over and be free.

3) How can loving yourself help you love others?

Loving yourself makes you feel proud that even though you’re not a model, you will look at people at how you look at yourself, beautiful, confident and free.

—Naomi M.

9

What I can do today to feel better about myself is don’t think nothing negative about myself and feel proud of myself.

I have not felt good about myself is when my cat went to heaven but how I show myself love to feel better is that I remember she was the best cat ever and she will always be with me in my heart.

How loving myself can help me love others is that I will get more comfortable and then make me love others.

How loving myself helps others love me is that I can be nice, responsible, kind, joyful.

One thing I love most about myself is that I can draw and how I show this side to others is by showing them my drawings.

—Gisselle C.

Treat myself to something special.

—Xavi V.

Today I can remind myself that I’m pretty and it’s possible to do what I love. I can make today a great day by helping others I can tell others that it’s possible to do anything. Me loving myself can convince people on doing it. And then they can love themselves because in my opinion anyone can do whatever they want to be just to be happy! One thing I like about myself is that I’m pretty everyone is pretty actually I love how I look like and I love them I’m in a world where no one can judge me for who I am now.

—Nohemi L.M.

When I have not felt good emotionally I would distract myself. I would just find a toy or some legos and play with them. Soon I will forget why I am sad and will be back to normal.

—Aivan M.

When I have not felt good physically is when my hamstrings were tight and I couldn’t play my best in the finals of my soccer tournament. I showed myself to love when I feel better, when I play my best I do really good.

—Washington M. Loving yourself can help others like you, because you do not seem depressed so your personality is more likely to be similar. If you get more friends you can love yourself more. You can also take care of yourself by being sanitized and clean.

—Michael R.

10

I am jumping on my trampoline.

My dogs are outside. They make me happy.

My other dog is Snowflake. I pretend she is there.

—Airamis

How loving myself helps people to love me is for example, Jack is walking down the streets and sees a homeless guy and he only have 10 dollars so he gave the homeless guy the 10 dollars the homeless guy said thank you to Jack and Jack said you’re welcome 2 days go Jack is walking down the streets again and he sees the same homeless guy and Jack goes up to him with another 10 dollars and Jack gave it to the homeless guy and the homeless guy says hey kid you’re the same kid that gave the 10 bucks and then Jack said yeah I just want to help the persons that need help the homeless guy says my name’s Bob then Jack says my name is Jack nice to meet you then they became friends ever since.

—Dylan N. How you can love yourself is by being brave and being positive to yourself. It can make you have good and the good things would happen which causes you to be happy. How you can love yourself is believing in yourself.

—Ethan B.

Something I can do to make myself feel better is playing with my dogs when I just feel like it. A second thing to feel good about myself is going shopping.

Another thing to make myself feel better is eating.

I love eating and it makes me feel good. Fourth thing that makes me feel good is being with my best friends because they make me happy. Finally something that makes me feel good is my family because when I feel bad my family is always there for me.

— Natalie H.

So, let’s just start off here: There are a lot of times when I feel bad about myself, or disappointed in myself.

Usually that’s caused by me believing that I disappointed somebody, embarrassed myself, or let somebody else down. I normally stew in my misery for a minute or two, but then I get rid of it by using this tactic: I push it away. That’s right! I push that memory, lock it in a tight vault in the inner depths of my mind, and forget about it. I will advise, however, that you do not use this tactic too often, as the intended effect will likely cause you to repeat this mistake again. In order to fix this, take the memory out again after a while. By then, you have likely gotten over it, and therefore may still learn from your mistake but not be tainted by the bad feelings in the memory.

—Sevah W.

Summer 2023

Have you ever heard that you can’t love others before you love yourself, if not it’s called self love. Self love is so important because if you want to love and care for others you need to give yourself love. For example, if you had a bad day and are thinking negative things then take a break because it can affect others, not just you. Now you’re probably thinking how can you stop yourself from treating yourself badly. First, take a break and relax. Second, maybe watch a show or tell someone how you feel. And lastly remember you have control over what you’re doing stop and take a break if needed, and that’s how you self love yourself.

—Lucy C.

Annabella

I love how I write because it looks so nice.

I love my lessons in math because sometimes it is easy or sometimes it is hard. I love how I talk because it is so nice and it sounds so nice. I love how I dress myself because it looks so nice. I love my eye color because it looks so beautiful. I love the things I write .

—Kaelyn A.

One thing I love most about myself is that I am good at pool. I show this side to others by always winning in pool. My friends say I’m good, even though I think I’m not that good. I’ve been playing since 2020 when my dad got a pool table. So in conclusion I love that my friends think I’m good at pool.

—Matthew O.

I love myself.

—Royal

I can care for myself by cooking and baking.

—Bella S.

Today what I could do to feel better about myself is help somebody or be nice and kind to other people to make me feel better. This makes me feel better because when you’re kind to someone they will be kind to you back or you will get that kindness back to you in some type of way. This is true because karma exists in a good way and a bad way.

—Orlando A-V

One thing I love about myself is I like to play soccer.

I show this side of me by playing soccer with my friends during recess. I like to play soccer because I am good at playing soccer. One more thing is I am good at being goalkeeper. That’s how I show this side of me.

—Andrew H.

To make you feel better about yourself you can think of all the good qualities and talents you have. It helps because you then think about things that make you happy and things you’re good at. It’s also a good way to find out the things you love about yourself.

—Liam S.

Summer 2023

Self-love is when you say good things and take care of yourself and eat healthy.

Also you can work out eat fruits and veggies to stay strong and healthy.

—Leia S.

I love my humor. I show it by making jokes and listening to others’ jokes. I love laughing so it’s nice.

Laughter is the greatest medicine so I like telling jokes often.

—Benjamin H.

11

I say nice things to myself.

—Eli

Self love is the most important thing int he world.

Self love is when you make mistakes. Take it from me I used to hate myself and hurt myself and cry myself to sleep. I was scared to say anything about my feelings. Don’t be like me. Love yourself because you’re the most important person in your life. Don’t change yourself to be happy. P.S. You are your own best friend. Love yourself.

—Journey F.

Loving myself can help other people love me by seeing what’s special about me and if they like me they will love the real me. It also helps me because I don’t have to put on a fake personality for people to love me and if they love me for who I am that will make me feel good about myself. Also it goes the other way around when I love myself I will also see what’s special about someone else.

—Tenoch G.

I like to listen to music a lot.

—Sofia

Self-love is a significant part of caring for yourself.

Self-love can make you mentally and physically happier, and healthier, a few ways you can practice self-love is by eating healthier, working out, doing things that make YOU happy, and genuinely caring for yourself. Self-love can boost your self-esteem and confidence. Try doing Self-Love today. :) —Charlotte A.

Something that makes me feel better about myself is when I accomplish something that I know is effective.

The way I know it’s effective is when not only when I have a better attitude but when a lot of other people have a better mood too. I can cheer people up by talking to them and making sure they are okay. If they are sad about something or someone, you always have to be understanding to the person and put yourself in their shoes.

—Nikita C.

12

Happy Birthday with my friends and animals makes me happy.

—Cameron B.

One thing you can do to love yourself is eat healthy so that you are healthy. Another thing you can do to love yourself is do what you want to but not all the time.

One more thing you can do to love yourself is find your happy place if it is your home or bed.

—Daniel S-K

What I can do to feel better today is to think about the positive possibilities, such as playing kahoot today, and eating treats —Diego G.

To make me feel better I will draw or color something.

—Ava A.

Some things that make me happy is baseball, basketball also the most two things I like doing is playing the PS5 a lot and playing soccer with my best friend.

—Adrian B.

Summer 2023

I give myself self love by eating yogurt.

—Sean

I love myself very much and that I have my best friend Ari and he will always be my friend and I really love myself and I will help others and I will help Ari and I will love myself always and I will be great with my best friend Ari. —Robert W.

Loving myself helps me love others because then I can express my emotions more better and show others that I care and love others.

—Mercedes U.

I like my active body because I love sports, my goal is to play every sport in the world and to do that I need my body.

I can show this side of myself by playing sports with other people. To do this I will make friends and have fun, but most of all I can show my side.

—Tristan C.

Self Love Journey

A way to love yourself is you can brush your teeth so you can have healthy teeth. You can also eat your vegetables and eat healthy food.

Also you should not be mad at yourself. You can also stay highly hydrated so you don’t get sick.

Don’t hurt yourself because then you don’t love yourself.

—Owen T.

Self love is important because if we don’t take care of ourselves we can’t take care of others.

There are a few ways to take care or love yourself. One of them is being your own best friend.

The way that works is by doing fun things to make yourself happy when you’re sad. You can also do activities like dancing and singing to enjoy yourself.

—Adrian H.

One thing that I love about myself is my sportsmanship. Every time I lose or win a soccer game I will get mad. But I think to myself “That was a good game and I played well.“ —Derek M.

Summer 2023

Self love is not called being selfish you just didn’t feel happy. With yourself you need time to feel better with yourself be your own best friend. You have to do something for yourself not for people that you care about and love. Sometimes when you feel sick you have to take a break physically or emotionally your self comes before every on treat yourself to things you like. Sometimes love in yourself can help others by being happy with yourself and more. You should love all about you if your hair black brown blond and you should love all about you. When people bother you it will make you feel sad it can develop to you hate in yourself I hope that never is going to happen.

—Nicole B.

I love that I’m special and nobody else is like me.

To me, We both have been here for quite some time, moon and back with a few smiles and a lot of whines. 365 Days and nights problems of galore and fun memories… Can drive a human crazy! Many times we were at our brink of uncontrollable rage, we always managed to carry on. Thick and thin, heavy or light it’s gonna be like this forever! It’s called life—everyone goes through it—what only matters is if you find your SELF LOVE! I might have a different definition than most, but mine’s deeper than that. Just accepting yourself and being over confident isn’t the whole thing and move on, you have to keep working at it and not getting mad at losing a game or someone having a different opinion than you and to you it makes no sense to have it. Instead when you lose that game think “They were just that much better than you!” or when someone’s opinion is different than ours say to yourself “Try and picture why they think that from their point of view, and if you still find none, all opinions are valid and they listened to yours too!” In conclusion, self-love isn’t just accepting yourself, it’s about respecting opinions and what you do as a human, because if it affects you negatively then do you really love yourself?

—London S.

—Dominick R.

13

I love Easter and all the color of Easter eggs.

Easter makes me happy.

—S. Walker

Something I love about myself is I don’t stay up late so I can get a lot of sleep for school. It really helps me so I can stay awake at school and will not fall asleep because of lack of sleep. What I can do today to make me feel better is just pet my dog at home it just makes me feel better and makes my day better. How loving yourself can help others is that you could be in a bad mood if you don’t love yourself and when you’re in a bad mood you’re not kind so you can’t love them.

—Cassian L-S One thing that I love about myself is my athlecity. I show this athlecity to my friends by playing games like tag, or running. This means that I like to play games no matter how I feel, sad happy or even angry, it will always cheer me up.

—Aaron O.

Think good things about myself in the mirror.

My sister called me a bunch of bad things so I was sad.

So that you’re not in a bad mood so you can be kind to others.

Because now they know that you’re a nice person and so they’ll be nice to you back.

My video game skills. I play video games with people like my friends.

I am saying good things about myself and other people.

My sister being mean. I can stop being mean to her back. I could tell my mom.

GOOD, FANTASTIC and AMAZING. —Joel G. How can loving yourself help you love others?

You can see the good qualities in you and spread it to the world. You can also share your knowledge to protect others. Not to mention you can teach people things you know.

—Alex B. Loving myself can help me to help others because I will be happy when I’m loving myself, and I can maybe make others happy that way.

—Evan D.

Something I’m extremely proud of is my drawing/drawing faces.

—Tesla S.

14

By loving yourself you can become more confident which makes you love and express yourself more.

Having self love is a responsibility meaning you can lose it and vice versa you can earn more of it (loving yourself more). It’s kind of like being your own self, being unique well at least that is when it comes to me. I have recently stepped out of my comfort zone by eating new foods and buying big hats for fun.

Having self love can mean loads of different things such as stepping out of your comfort zone like me but this could mean something completely different like doing what you want to do or cutting off all of the friends or people who are mean to you. But to me I think self love is very important.

—Gwyneth B.

When I was little I never really took care of myself, I never thought that was a thing until now. I focus on what’s good for me and what I should do to make me more confident. When people have doubt in me, I still never have doubt in myself. I stand up in confidence and not let anything bring me down.

I believe in myself and everything I will do to bring more self-confidence in myself and be a great person and you should too. LOVE YOUR SELF. —Emma H.

A way I can make myself a better person is by helping others so I can feel good about myself and not think to myself that I’m a mean person. ­—Peyton S-H

I can make myself feel better by doing something that makes me happy, like eating food or telling myself positive things like you can do this! Or believe in yourself! One time I felt really unhappy because I realized I hadn’t eaten all day. I made myself feel happy by eating a lot of food, and I was really happy after that. Another time I was unhappy, I called my friend and she cheered me up. That’s how I make myself happy or what I do to make myself happy.

—Sloan S.

Self-love is very important. Some ways to show selflove are to get enough sleep, enough food, enough water, and having a clean space. For example, when you have a dirty room you are more likely to be stressed which is bad for your mental health, and having bad mental health doesn’t help with self-love.

Some ways I express self-love is drawing and listening to music! Overall, I believe self-love is significant for your mental and physical health!

—Addison S.

I don’t feel good when I get hurt. But when I play soccer it makes me feel better about myself. I like playing soccer with my friends. Also when I make a good play I feel better about myself. My friends help me a lot so then I feel better and feel more confident in what I do.

—Rohan M.

Summer 2023

Loving myself can help others because I can tell them what I do to love myself. When I love myself it makes me happy so I can make others happy. When I love myself I try to make other people laugh who are sad.

When I’m happy I like it when I make people happy.

—Oscar O.

I drew a picture of me giving money to a homeless person. I did this because some people need money and homeless people need more than money. They need kindness. I love to give money to homeless people because they start to smile and to be happy.

And homeless people are grateful for whatever you give them. That’s all!!!!

— Joana N.

I can busy myself because I can’t get my mind off from yesterday. Also when I get my mind off from yesterday I can do more stuff and enjoy my hobbies that I enjoy without being stressed from yesterday.

—Cy H.

Self love is important because it opens even more doors for you to give.

Self compassion is something that lives within you and instead of representing it for the good of others accept it.

The more you are aware of the understanding and kindness that they want to offer you the more your self esteem and confidence will grow.

Self love isn’t always fun.

Sometimes self love is hard, it’s doing what’s best for you even if it isn’t necessarily exciting to you at the time.

Self love can be going to bed early, when you know that tomorrow is an important day choosing to stay so you can finish a task or say no to a loved one so you can have.

—Elias Z.

Summer 2023

I show self love to myself because I spend a lot of time with my family. I really care about my speaking and reading so I practice a lot with my reading. I read a lot of chapter books and I am getting better at reading little by little.

Also when I spend time with my family I like to talk about what I learned in school. Finally I love to read and spend time with my family.

—Jaden D-R I will do something I love like shopping, playing games, or watch T.V. And it makes me forget about everything else and it helps relieve stress from my mind.

—Kate To feel better about myself I will socialize more and tell others how I feel and try to express my passions comfortably. Today I felt tired so to feel better I have to drink more milk in the morning to energize me in the morning and try to do more fun stuff in the afternoon.

—Christopher C.

One time I didn’t feel so good was when my dog died and my friends and family helped me feel better.

—Zoe P.

I think Self Love is being proud and confident in yourself. For example, if there is a test having Self Love would be thinking you will do good on the test and succeed. Not having Self Love would be you thinking you will fail every test. That is what I think Self Love is.

—Jackson J.

When have you not felt good and how did you show yourself love to feel better?

My parents were arguing a lot for a while but when I would go to school I would always just forget about it by hanging with my friends and laughing with them.

—Sofia D. By loving yourself you will be able to embrace others and love. Without loving yourself, it’s hard to love. We have to accept ourselves before we accept others. Loving yourself trains you to love others.

Of course, loving others is easier than being able to love yourself because you have your own insecurities and you do not know others’ insecurities. You may compare yourself to another person for an insecurity you have, but that same person may feel the same way and you don’t even know it. And when others make fun of other people that’s usually because they have insecurities about themselves and they put it on others. This just shows if you don’t embrace yourself you can’t love others because you will just put your own insecurities on them. So by loving yourself your ability to love other people in a great way.

—Alani S.

15

When I’m angry or stressed out I grab puchi and play with him so he makes me happy.

Also puchi is a mouse or rat plushie so he is not real and I’ve been having him since I was 2 or 3 years old so I’ve been having him for 5 years.

I can feel better today by making bracelets.

Or I can listen to music with my friends, dancing too around my house. Maybe I can put the pool outside and play. Finally I can feel better by making slime with my friends and my teacher.

—Jade Q.C.

I work out by lifting silverware.

—Logan

I love to watch the minions because there are funny scenes and crazy ones too and there’s a scene that I love it’s when bob meets a rat and names him le puchi and puchi also helps to defeat the villain in the minions movie.

— Enzo H.

Self love is important, and if you love yourself you can love others. This is true because when you receive a little love, you want to give more love.

You can pass it on and make someone else’s day.

Also if you wake up feeling sad and you love yourself, you can make yourself feel better. Lastly when you have self love you can make life easier.

The more stressed you are the shorter you live.

So if you love yourself you live longer.

—Emma B.

A picture of me taking care of myself and showing myself love.

I like to sleep.

Johan M.

16

What I would do today to feel better about myself is to say “you got this.” What I do when I don’t feel good emotionally is to cheer up and look at the bright side.

It can help others love themself by showing that not only you can love yourself but others can love them self too. It can help yourself by others loving you by showing you care about them too in love. One thing that I love of my body is my heart. It shows this side of myself to others because I care for all of them because of my heart.

—Crystal S-H

I take good care of myself.

I loves to eat my vegetables and fruits.

—Cameron B.

Summer 2023

There is a thing that weakens me, and that is when I think I’m not good enough when I make a mistake, when I disappoint someone, or when I get a not really great grade. I do try some ways to get those feelings out of my mind though. I make myself think that I’m trying my best, or that I also think to myself that I can learn from my mistakes or that I can learn from my behavior, and there could always be time to try again and improve even better. This could really help myself, and I think maybe these ways could help you and others too. Well, you don’t HAVE to do these ways, you can make your own ways as well!

—Kassandra S.

Girl in the Forest

I take care of myself by getting videoed.

—M.P.

The girl is lost in the forest but she is admiring the beauty even though she is lost. —Roshni P. Self-love is being confident in yourself and believing in yourself. One way to love yourself is by taking care of yourself. You can take care of yourself by being healthy and not doing bad things to your body. This is what I think self-love is.

—Avi K.

Eating healthy.

It makes me feel proud that people get the love I give to them.

—Crystal T.

—Colton

Raina C.

Andrew R.

Summer 2023

Look At The Bright Side!

The first box shows Kassandra looking at the results of her test.

The second box shows that her test got a C, so she thinks, “Aw man! A C? I don’t think I’m good at this!”

But then in the third box, she starts to think again, “Wait a minute...I feel like it’s wrong to think like that.”

Meaning that if she thinks negative to herself, she could start disliking herself.

In the fourth box, Kassandra then thinks, “Well then, that’s okay! At least I learned from my mistakes from that test!” Meaning that she’s now thinking positive and comforting herself so she can avoid the things that’s making her feel bad about herself and start loving herself more.

—Kassandra S.

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What I can do to make myself feel better about myself is say positive things! Like, I can do this test, or I will understand this if I study harder! I try to think positive! I try to be kind, because it feels good to be good.

I think negative though sometimes, like “People will just make fun of my arm” or “People will tease me cause I wear my traditional clothes!” But I need to learn to love myself for who I am!

—Nora M.

If you ever feel upset you can try doing something you love. For example, I love watching Tik Tok, so when I am upset I watch Tik Tok and it calms me down. Now, if somebody tells you something mean that hurts your feelings, don’t believe them. For instance, if someone tells you “you’re ugly” don’t believe it because it’s mean to call someone ugly, including yourself. Those are just a few examples of how you can be nice to yourself.

—Marlowe F.

You can be friends with yourself if you are a healthy athlete or if you meditate. You could also choose to eat healthier foods, like salads and lots of meats like chicken and pig. You could also try and make more friends to be happy. You could help others in need to make you feel happy for doing something good to another human being. I usually am nice to others to help me be happy.

—David F.

yo dibuje ami hermanita proque estava triste proque noteniadinero para com pra un jugete poreso mi hermanita estava trieste I yo le dinero para que se lo comprara luego sepuso muy felis y ese esmi self love.

— Genesis M.C. I eat oranges every night and I wrestle and I eat apples and bananas. And I drink milk and workout.

—Andrik S.

I eat apple slices everyday to keep my body healthy.

—Jenny

Some things that I love about myself is mostly the things that I do, I’m playing basketball right now and I’m improving a lot, I also like to hang out with my friends as well.

—Melania S.

I made a picture of my family because I love them. I love my family because they buy me stuff I need and want. Another reason I love my family is because they play with me. And because they bring me places I want to go. And because they buy me food I like.

That is why I made a picture of my family.

—Daniel G.

18

I am a Fashionista, I love myself.

I am beautiful inside and out.

—De’Miaya B.

What is self love? To me Salaura C., self love is not just a feeling it can be almost anything positive you can listen to music, take a walk, breathe or close your eyes and relax. I personally feel I can go to my room turn on my radio lay down on my bed and relax.

Sometimes I’m not that positive to myself either I don’t understand or I shut down. My self love is more than I think but I keep on loving myself.

Non positive: think badly about yourself, freak out, yell Positive: think positive, relax, take deep breaths —Salaura I think self love to me is giving your self love and not being hard on yourself. In the beginning you should always treat yourself and feel comfortable, don’t go over the limit for yourself. Why do you wonder?

Well you are the only person that knows yourself the most. Another thing is that you can choose the stuff you want to do, no one should push you to do things other people want to do. Last thing is that self love is important because it lowers anxiety some people have and stress. If you don’t have a good self love with yourself you can create a bad relationship and start not doing good habits.

—Eliana S.

I like to spend time with my step-sister because she is funny and cool. We also pick what to eat sometimes not all the time though. Once we went to the zoo and that was fun. We saw really cool animals. After we went to get some ice cream.

— Mitzy J.

Summer 2023

I want to be like the Flash and protect others.

I love helping others —Antonio I.

I love to let my light shine bright like a rainbow —Cameron B.

I enjoy spending time with my family and playing outside with my dog.

—Angeliyah M.

When I don’t feel good physically or emotionally I take a deep breath and try and calm down and if that doesn’t work I’ll try and go to an adult and probably tell them how I feel and maybe they can help me.

Loving myself helps me love others because if I love myself it can help by loving others because I know how to treat myself right so if I know how to treat myself so I know how to treat others.

Loving myself can make people other people like me because if I love myself people will find it easier to like me.

One thing I like about myself is that sometimes I’m smart because some people ask me for help in some subjects.

—Sebastian M.A.

I can show self love by self confidence.

—Kaidon

Laying in the sun eating pizza and sleeping and being with my cat and cake one more thing being with my friends and tv.

—Steven

Five thing that I love about myself is that I can read for a 1 hour and I could finish two books for a hour.

Another thing that I love about myself is I could make friends easily. I could make another thing that I love myself is that I care about people’s feelings and I could make people feel happy. And I help others in need like when someone hurts themselves I help them and I tell them if they are ok.

That is five things that I love about myself.

—Yanely D.

Summer 2023

One thing that I love about myself is my smile.

My smile can brighten someone’s day.

I am always kind to others. —A. Kadisus B.

I love myself and my style, and I am confident in everything I do.

—Jimmiya H.

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COMING SOON: The Enjoy the Journey issue will inspire your students to express themselves through art and personal reflections